Kate's cousin bares all in strip show

New York - A distant cousin of Prince William's wife Kate Middleton wore a crown - and nothing else - in a royally raunchy New York strip show.

Katrina Darling, 21, the second cousin once removed of the Duchess of Cambridge, was the star attraction at the WiP club in Manhattan on Tuesday.

Video footage from gossip site www.theinsider.com showed her racy highness performing a burlesque strip routine starting with a Union Jack and faux ermine shawl over a sparkly red mini dress, and ending with a few tiny, strategically placed crowns.

Oblivious

In a video interview with Insider, Darling said her "God Save the Queen act", performed to the raucous Sex Pistols song, started before she'd even discovered that Middleton was her distant cousin.

"It was just a fun idea," she said, describing the news that she and Middleton are related as "the happiest coincidence ever".

As for the act, "it goes from being fully dressed to not very dressed at all", she said.

"I finish up in nothing but four crowns. One there, there and there," she said, pointing to her head, then ever lower.

Darling explained her royal link stems from her father's mother and Middleton's great grandfather being sister and brother. "I was totally oblivious until the press informed me."

Watch an interview with Katrina and part of her strip show here: